Victoria West golfers bounce back from bad first day; Vega takes top honors

Klayton Koch didn't have a good Friday. Many of his teammates at Victoria West didn't either.

"I was struggling with my irons," said the senior golfer. "I couldn't put it all together."

What a difference a day makes.

Koch bounced back from an opening round 96 to shoot a 79 on Saturday, a 17 shot difference and indicative of the play of the rest of the team.

Combined, the Warriors shot a total of 39 shots lower than the day before, good enough to move up two spots and finish sixth.

In addition, junior golfer Trevor Vega picked up his first tournament win of the season, finishing as the top overall medalist with a second day 2-over 73, finishing one stroke ahead of Bryan's Sam De Stefano.

Playing with the top players in the tournament on Saturday helped the junior golfer.

"I knew what I had to do to keep pace," Vega said.

Even he had to bounce back from some uncharacteristic play after cruising through much of Friday's first round at Victoria Country Club.

"I played it smart, but the last four holes I wasn't playing too well," Vega said. "I hit the water on 16, but came back and got a birdie on 17. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin."

But the turnaround for the rest of the Warriors, and Koch in particular, was key to the team's success.

"The boys had a little fire in their belly because they played so poorly the first day," said Warriors coach Fred Neuman. "They wanted to play better."

Koch said he had been frustrated by his play the first day of the tournament, and that there had been some pressure to open the season with a bang.

But the change to an easier venue, Colony Creek, also helped.

"It's our home course, and we were the host," he said. "We wanted to be the best on the course. Without the pressure and the course change, things improved."

The conditions also improved. Sort of.

The morning weather was ideal for golf, with soft winds and warm weather for late January. But the conditions grew more blustery as the day wore on.

"It was a little easier," Koch said. "There wasn't a lot of wind early, and on the back nine the wind picked up.

"Approaching the green, it would blow the ball left or right, depending on the wind."

All five players for the Warriors shot better than their first day's score. In addition to Koch and Vega, Shannon Hawes shot an 81, a seven stroke improvement on his first round score; Colton Escamilla shot an 84, a 12-stroke improvement; and Trenton Lee shot a 94, a six shot improvement.

"They've got to feel good about it," Neuman said of the team's improvement. "It will boost their confidence and they'll be looking forward to the next tournament."

The Warriors and Victoria East will be in action on Feb. 18 and 19 at Pecan Valley in San Antonio for the Churchill tournament.

MORE TEAMSThere were a total of 20 teams in the tournament from 17 different schools, an improvement over the previous year's event, Neuman said.

"We're fortunate this year," he said. "We have five more teams."

TIEBREAKERBryan and Corpus Christi King played to a complete tie. Literally.

Both teams shot the same score on the first day at Victoria Country Club, then followed that up by shooting the same scores again on Saturday at Colony Creek to tie for the top spot at the end.

But there was no playoff for the tournament. King had left before all of the scores were posted.

Just four teams from three schools stuck around for the awards, almost an hour and a half after the last golfer came off the course.

So, tournament organizers looked to the cards for a tiebreaker, and Bryan's Matthew Wilkinson (176) outshot King's Daniel Hinojosa (187), giving the Vikings the top team spot in the tournament.

DISTRICT TOURNAMENT PREVIEW?This tournament also played an important role for several of the schools participating.

The District 30-4A boys golf tournament will be at Victoria Country Club on April 4 and 5, and the district was well represented at the event. Four of the six schools, East, West, G-P and Calhoun, are from that district.